The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), which is made available through FutureLearn, provides free online courses from world-class universities. 

The course is designed for the general public and assumes no prior knowledge of the Quaker movement.  It has attracted a huge global take-up. 

Professor Ben Pink Dandelion, of Lancaster University’s department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, who leads the course, said: “This free online course draws on our world-leading reputation in online postgraduate Quaker studies and is an obvious choice for Lancaster University with its own Quaker heritage, and situated as it is in the heart of what is called 1652 country, the area where the Quaker movement led by George Fox really took off. 

“We visit Pendle Hill, Firbank Fell near Sedbergh and Swarthmoor Hall in Ulverston to revisit the key ideas and events of that crucial summer. 

"People will get a real sense of the radical nature of Quaker thinking as well as of the social history of the time and the importance of the North in forging Quaker identity." 

Professors Hilary Hinds and Angus Winchester are also part of the team, and the course was co-created with Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.